With the sun in the west and the
ninth hour approaching, lights and doors are turned off and shut in the Muslim
quarter. My friends and I sit on the porch of a restaurant located on the edge
of the street, eating dinner and chatting about our first week, and for some longer,
in Israel. Around me young boys sweep the streets clean of the day’s trash,
while large Jewish groups quickly pass by heading to the Damascus gate.
As we stood to leave a group of twenty
young Jewish men dressed all in white begin to dance and sing in the
street. Drawing not just the attention
of the tourist but the Muslim men and women as well. This spectacle continues
for another three minutes before the Israeli police usher the group on, the
young men comply but do so while continuing to sing.
In that moment I was reminded again of the
tension between the various religious and ethnic groups in Israel. These last
five days in Israel has provided a personal opportunity to understand the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict from not just a political perspective but social
as well. It has revealed to me the
complexity in the Israeli culture from the identity of a Jew to the debates on
military tactics.
The “Law and Security: Perspectives from
the Field and Beyond” conference was an eye opener on Israeli’s law in relations
to security. The Operation Pillar of Defense is a prime example of this,
demonstrating the conflict between restraints, legitimacy and deterrence as
well as matters accustomed to humanitarian and media issues. Before this
conference I had never given any thought to these issues in relation to
military procedures and plan to study more of it in the coming days.
In regards to the Jewish identity, I have
had the opportunity to speak to various individuals who distinguished themselves
from religion to nationality or both. The class documentaries also provided a
perspective on the different religious and ethnic sects, such as the matter on
Israeli Russians and the Haredims. What I can conclude is the need for a
community and a purpose, and whether an individual finds that in a religion or
ethnic group is a personal decision.
I hope to further study how the various
identities impact the country in all its aspects. Is Israel becoming a mini-USA in
the sense that religion is a personal identification and separate from
nationality? My experience at the Western Wall during Shabbat revealed the
importance of religion from a spiritual and historical take but just how big of
a role does religion play today in Israel’s politics and society?
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